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Sunday, January 13, 2013

October and November 2012 Sewing

I’m posting a couple of posts to catch up on the sewing I did in the last few months of 2012. 1) Dragon costumeWhen
we were at the fabric store in August or September, the little guy
spotted a pattern for a dragon costume and insisted that was the costume
he wanted for Halloween. I thought maybe he’d forget about it, but he
kept reminding me, and then when October came around, he told me I had
to have his dragon costume completed by October 31. Looking at the
picture on the front of the pattern was kind of daunting, so I suggested
that we simplify it by leaving out the wings or some other elements.
He said, No, the dragon had to have wings.So, I got the fabric and
went to work.

It had everything: wings, spiky spine, big tail, big ears...

This
was probably the most labor intensive thing I’ve sewn. I kid you not,
just tracing the pattern pieces took me days. DAYS! For a couple of
weeks there, my kitchen looked like a sewing factory, with pieces of red
and orange fleece laid out, because I was trying to keep it all
organized. But I was really happy with the way it turned out. And,
more importantly, the little guy loved his costume.

There's something about the dragon costume that brought the silly character out of the little guy. Here he is striking a pose on Halloween:

After
the dust (or the lint) settled, I realized I’d forgotten to put the fusible fleece
into the tail piece, but it didn’t change the way the costume looked, so
no-way no-how was I going to take out the seams and redo it. So maybe
the tail won’t hold up as well, but it held up all the times he wore it.
He wore it to his school Halloween carnival, to the Halloween party at
my brother’s work, to his school’s costume parade, and to
trick-or-treating. Four times. (Did I mention that birthing this
dragon took longer than birthing my human children?) At least it got worn more than once. ;) I know it’s not too much longer that he’ll be
asking for some store-bought super hero costume, so I was happy to
make this costume this year.2) Halloween skirt and leggingsI also made the baby girl a little outfit to wear to the pumpkin patch.

I
made the skirt from this fluffly chiffon skirt tutorial from Make It
and Love It. I didn’t have chiffon, so I used tulle, but it still turned
out cute. The tulle was really cheap, and I used one of my old nursing
tank tops for the skirt. I just cut off the top (the part with the
straps) and added elastic for the waistband. Aren’t I so clever? ;)

I
also used an old nursing tank for the leggings. (Yes, I had a lot of
nursing tanks. When they were newborns, I pretty much lived in nursing
tanks.) I drew the pumpkins and cut them out from some knit I had in my
scrap pile. I don't have a close-up of the pumpkins, but trust me, they are cute.3) Dorothy costume

I
had just enough time before Halloween to make this Dorothy dress for the baby girl. I got this pattern last year, but didn’t get a chance to make it. This year, I had the glittery red shoes, so I *had* to make the Dorothy
dress before she grew out of the shoes. I made it in a size 3T, so
maybe she can wear it again next year.

4) Knot apron dress

In
November, we went to a birthday party for a little friend who was
turning one. I made this knot apron dress for the birthday girl. After I bought these fabrics, I
kept second guessing myself. So, most of the sewing time was spent
looking through my fabric stash and deciding whether I wanted to use
something different. In the end, I used the fabrics I’d originally
bought. And I think it turned out really cute. So, lesson learned: go with my instincts.I
used this pattern from Little Lizard King. Most of the pattern pieces were rectangles, so very easy to cut
and sew. And, yet, really versatile. I have a friend whose daughter has a bunch of these dresses and wears them year round.I added a little bit of lace to the apron to give it a little omphf.

5) Super hero costumes

We
had another birthday party to go to in December. It was a super hero
themed party, so I made these costumes for the kids. Unfortunately,
they got sick and couldn’t go to the party. (Think waking up in the
middle of the night and vomiting. It wasn’t pretty.) But we did wear
the costumes later in December for a park play date with friends. And
maybe they can be Halloween costumes for next year. The following pictures are
from the park play date. I made masks from craft foam for all the kids who attended the play date (because I'm totally crafty and awesome like that, ha!).The
hubs has this thing about the kids wearing anything around their necks,
so I found this pattern on etsy that has the cape attached to the
“shirt”. It was perfect! It was easy and pretty quick to
make. Doing the applique part was probably the most time-consuming.
The pattern is meant to be reversible; you can make a Batman costume on the other side, but I
just made the Superman side.

How
many of you ladies out there loved Wonder Woman as a girl? I’ve been
wanting to make a Wonder Woman costume for the baby girl for a while, and I’m glad
I finally had a reason to. :) I used this explanation from the Lil
Blue Boo blog to make this little dress. I think it turned out totally
cute. I haven’t made the accessories yet, but maybe the next time she
wears it, I’ll get around to that.

I
got all these fabrics during a Black Friday sale at a local fabric
store, so they were 50% off. Otherwise, spandex and metallic knit can be
pretty expensive. Who knew.

welcome!

As a mom of two, I spend most of my time and energy taking care of (and worrying about) my kids. Motherhood has been fulfilling in ways I could never have imagined, but I also crave an outlet for my creative energy. (Other than coming up with creative ways to convince a three-year-old to eat his dinner, that is.) So, after the kids are in bed, in my house, you can often hear the purr of the sewing machine and NPR podcasting on the computer, as something new takes form.